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In May 2005, 35 Greenpeace protesters invaded Land Rover's Solihull production line and chained themselves to vehicles citing Ford (then Land Rover's owner) as 'climate criminals' for aggressively marketing 4x4 vehicles for urban use.

My how things have changed. These days over half the European new-car market consists of SUV crossovers, which might not have four-wheel drive but are certainly high-riding, aerodynamically poor, and less efficient purveyors of families and stuff than a saloon or estate equivalent; would-be protestors don't know where to turn.

Except they do, of course, because this year's fright-mask enemy is Volkswagen and its diesel engines and SUVs seem to have got away scot...